Introduction The Lismore City Local Government Area, together with large parts of northern NSW and southern QLD, were impacted by unprecedented flooding events during February and March 2022. These floods have had devastating impacts across the community, with lives lost, homes and businesses destroyed and critical infrastructure sustaining major damage.
We are grateful for the support of our emergency response agencies including NSW Police, the State Emergency Services, the Australian Defence Force, the Rural Fire Service, the Department of Public Works and Resilience NSW among others. We are also grateful to the countless community organisations who have offered support and resources.
Lismore has been at the epicentre of this natural disaster, with flood levels unmatched in recorded history. With the major flood event of 2017 as a point of comparison, flood waters were nearly three metres higher than those that devastated the Lismore community at that time.
As flood waters recede and the community begins the painful and lengthy process of recovery, the sheer magnitude of the challenges facing us becomes clear.
The compounding effect of a further major flood event in the second half of March, after communities had spent countless hours cleaning, repairing, and rebuilding homes and businesses, has resulted in a sense of exhaustion and frustration across our fragile community. Lismore City Council has played a critical role in the immediate aftermath of this disaster, working to restore essential infrastructure, reopen roads and support emergency services.
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Flood Response April 2022
While the impacts of this flood event are still being assessed, initial estimates have more than 3000 businesses across Lismore impacted, affecting more than 18,000 jobs including almost 1000 agricultural jobs. Nearly 1400 houses across the Local Government Area have sustained major damage with at least 37 destroyed completely. Five lives were tragically lost during these flood events, and the wellbeing and mental health challenges that will impact our community in coming months and years will be difficult to quantify and even harder to manage.
